Chris Christie no longer the 'hero' of Sandy recovery, poll says

Feb. 25, 2014

Gov. Chris Christie answers a question from Debbie Fortier of Brick, who lost her home to Sandy, during his Sandy Recovery Town Hall Meeting at VFW 2179 in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown, NJ on Thursday, February 20, 2014. / Tanya Breen/Staff Photographer

Written by

@MichaelSymons_

Gov. Chris Christie approaches today’s budget address as a chief executive needing to quickly change the conversation, results of the latest Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll show, but with a growing credibility gap that makes such a pivot difficult to pull off.

Christie’s job approval rating has tumbled to levels not seen since 2011, down 20 points since its peak after Superstorm Sandy to 50 percent among all adults and 49 percent among registered voters. It has dropped across demographic groups, even faster in February than it had in January, and the erosion extends to views of Christie personally as well as his performance as governor.

Half of residents now think Christie was personally involved in the decision to close the George Washington Bridge access lanes in Fort Lee last September, up from one-third a month ago, and 61 percent believe he’s not being completely honest about what he knows about the controversy.

People are also getting more unhappy about Christie’s handling of Sandy recovery, one of his signature issues. Forty percent give his administration an above-average grade on the topic, compared with 72 percent five months ago. While 55 percent say they’re satisfied with the recovery effort so far, that’s down from 66 percent in December and 76 percent in September.

“It’s huge. These are numbers we haven’t seen for him in three years. We’re not just talking about pre-Sandy, these are numbers we haven’t seen since early in the administration,” said Patrick Murray, the Monmouth University Polling Institute director.

Adding to Christie’s troubles is that a majority of New Jerseyans, 56 percent, say the governor is more concerned about his own political future than doing his current job. In January, the gap between those two options was 5 points; it’s now 21 points.

“It’s complicated,” said Matt Garrison of Tuckerton, when asked his opinion of Christie’s job performance. “I feel he could be using New Jersey as less of a stepping stone for his own aspirations.”

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The combination is a dangerous one for Christie, Murray said. If people don’t trust his word or his motivations, they might be less likely to be receptive to whatever ideas he may pitch in today’s budget proposal, such as income-tax reductions or further changes in public workers’ pensions.

“People are increasingly convinced he’s more concerned about his future than he is with governing New Jersey,” Murray said. “And that means that they’re going to be very skeptical of the things that he proposes. They’re going to start to look at it as: ‘What does he get out of it?’”

Nearly two in three New Jerseyans believe Christie intends to run for president, though just 41 percent now believe he has the right temperament for that job, down 15 percentage points since September.

Even with the declines, Christie still has more supporters than detractors in the current poll. Seventy-seven percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents continue to approve of his job handling.

Among the supporters is Kim Wilson of Lacye’s Lanoka Harbor section, who said “the mudslinging doesn’t really resonate” because he believes that “nobody’s hands are clean in New Jersey government.”

“I think he is different. He’s taken on a lot of the power base that historically benefits from all the money in the state, public unions and what have you,” Wilson said. “I guess there’s only so much he can do. There are flaws in every system, and you’re surrounded by people who are flawed and grew up in that system. For one person, I think he’s done a reasonable job. It’s not clear whether the people around him have done as good a job as they should have.”

Forty-nine percent of New Jerseyans said the George Washington Bridge lane closures — which were carried out for still-mysterious reasons after a deputy chief of staff in Christie’s office gave the go-ahead — were politics as usual in the Christie administration, though the governor said in a January news conference that it was not representative of the way his team operates.

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Sixty percent of New Jerseyans said it is very likely or somewhat likely that the Christie administration would use Sandy relief funds to exercise political power over local officials. A plurality, 49 percent, said they tend to believe Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s allegations that state officials told her the city would not receive recovery funds unless an unrelated high-rise development was approved.

The poll also sounded cautionary notes for the Legislature, which saw its approval rating drop by nine points and its disapproval rating climb 12 points among registered voters. Fifty-six percent of adults said the Legislature’s investigative committee looking into the bridge scandal is more interested in going after Christie than learning the facts of the case.

The Monmouth/APP Poll was conducted from Feb. 19 to 23 with a statewide random sample of 803 adult residents, yielding a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. The sample included 690 registered voters, yielding a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

The results were first published by Gannett’s New Jersey newspapers, which include the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, the Courier News and Home News Tribune of Somerville, the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, the Daily Journal of Vineland and the Daily Record of Parsippany.